fall

Disclosure: This is part of a sponsored campaign with Straight Talk Wireless. As always, all opinions, ideas and stories are 100% my own.

In the Fall daylight starts to fade quickly and there is less time to take well-lit pictures while taking advantage of many Fall activities you probably want to do with the family. Today I want to help you with these tips so you can take better pictures during Fall without the stress.

All the pictures in this post were taken with my iPhone and even edited with the phone as well. When I don’t carry my DSLR camera, I take lots of photos with the iPhone.

The beauty of having smartphones is that we carry around a good camera almost 100% of the time so we can use them to help us create the best memories with photography. And when having a great reliable data plan like Straight Talk offers you can share them instantly via email or social media.

Here are the tips to help you take better pictures:

1. Pick the best time of the day. I always insist on going out in the afternoon and not mid-day when the sun is right above us and makes awful harsh shadows on everything. It’s much better to have the sun low, as it is before sunset or while sunrise (Although this last one would be hard!) Try and make it during the magic hour (about an hour before the sunset), when the light shines on everything so magically! When you discover this time of the day you won’t wanna go back! Guilty!!

Also, if you are visiting a place where there is lots of people like a Pumpkin Patch, try going during the week day for the pictures only, this way it won’t be crowded.

2. Have a list of places to go. Create this list of places your family really enjoys and feels comfortable in. We LOVE going to the bay or the beach and the kids immediately feel at ease, also a Pumpkin Patch because it’s a themed Fall favorite. In this case we didn’t have time to go to a big one but that’s ok, we went to a small one and they had fun, I took photos and then we might go to a big one and I don’t need to take more photos, this can work too.

3. Follow the Rule of Thirds. This one is very simple, divide your picture in 3 horizontal quadrants and 3 vertical quadrants, try to let the main point of interest of the photo in one of those line intersections or in one of the lines, this will create a better balance. This can be done while editing too, so you can crop it later if you need to.

<–The main point of interest here is in the middle and over all the lines, this photo is not following the rule of thirds.

(Below) The main point of interest is in in the first vertical line and also in the intersection of the vertical and horizontal line, this photo is cropped better following the rule of thirds.

4. Be Always Ready. I ask the kids to pose but even when they are not posing I keep taking pictures because spontaneous moments can happen and sometime you might catch the best spontaneous moment! Also, I keep a comb, hairspray and hair bands in the car, you never know when you might need them.

5. Always check the background. This can make a picture stand out! When we went of the small Pumpkin Patch which is located in a shopping mall parking lot, some of the backgrounds where store signs and cars! Oh no! So I tried to avoid it all the time in the photos. Even though you might see it, it’s very little and you don’t notice it prominent in all the photos.

6. Offer Surprises to the kids in exchange for photos. Since I do take a lot of photos of the kids, sometimes they get tired of it so I offer surprises, I either have some candy they usually don’t eat regularly or some toys or offer to take them to a fun place. This always helps, hey who wants to work without pay? LOL

7. Tell a story. If we take too many posed pictures we might forget how the moment was. So it’s much nicer that when you look at them you’re able to read a story without words. Our story when we visited the Pumpkin Patch was we walked around, saw all the different pumpkins and then decided to get some of the little ones, the kids picked them and bagged them, they had fun!

8. Always edit your pictures. You don’t need to be a photographer or have your photos on the computer to do this, with so many apps now available this is easy! My absolute favorites are VSCO Cam and Instagram. All the photos here were edited with VSCO Cam, even if it’s just adding some brightness and contrast, that helps a lot! Keep in mind to add the same style of editing to the group of pictures so they all look like they belong together too.

Having an unlimited* data plan and nationwide coverage helps a lot with taking pictures and editing them, I don’t have to worry about getting to a wifi area to upload my photos or share them on social media or to send them to family. I am loving the unlimited* data plan from Straight Talk, it allows me to have a great connection and service for a great prize, even Derek switched to it now!!

*Disclaimer: Includes unlimited talk and text with 5 GB of high speed data per 30 day cycle. After 5 GB, data speed will be reduced to as low as 2GB for the remainder of the 30 day cycle. At 2G speed, the functionality of some data applications such as streaming video or audio may be affected. All currently active Straight Talk BYOP customers will also receive the first 5 GB Data at High Speeds at the start of their next 30 day cycle. Please refer always to the Terms and Conditions of Service at StraightTalk.com